40 years after crashing in the Andes, teams play their rugby match

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Surviving members of an Uruguayan rugby team have played a match postponed four decades ago when their plane crashed in the Andes, stranding them for 72 days in the cordillera and forcing them to eat human flesh to stay alive.

The Old Christians Club squared off Saturday in Santiago against the Old Grangonian Club, the former Chilean rugby team they were supposed to play when their flight went down. Their terrifying story became the basis of a best-selling book and a Hollywood movie.

View full sizeLuis Andres Henao, The Associated PressFormer members of Uruguay's ruby team who survived a 1972 plane crash in the Chilean Andes hold a minute of silence after the unveiling of a plaque with pictures of family members and friends who died.

"At about this time we were falling in the Andes. Today, we're here to win a game," crash survivor Pedro Algorta, 61, said as he prepared to walk onto the playing field surrounded by the jagged mountains that trapped the group.

During the anniversary ceremony, military jets flew over the field, where parachutists draped in Chilean and Uruguayan flags landed. In a corner, survivors wept when officials unveiled a commemorative frame with pictures of those who died in the snowy peaks.

"The conditions were more horrifying than you can ever imagine. To live at 4,000 meters without any food," said survivor Eduardo Strauch, 65. "The only reason why we're here alive today is because we had the goal of returning home ... [Our loved ones] gave us life. They made the sacrifice for others."

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